16th January, 2014
As Nigeria prepares for the general elections in 2015, it has become nauseating to hear prominent leaders of the country make unguarded statements that threaten the already tense atmosphere and this is not good for the unity of the country.
The most recent of such statements came from an acclaimed frontline Igbo leader and former governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife. Ezeife, who, probably out of excitement or the urgent need to become relevant again in the country’s polity, met with journalists and gleefully told them that Nigeria would break up if President Jonathan loses in 2015.
Ezeife, who should remain in the background as an elder-statesman, said those who oppose President Jonathan’s bid for a second term in office and National Dialogue, are saying no to one Nigeria. He added that opposing President Jonathan’s second term is like opposing the continued existence of Nigeria as one united country.
His statement is reminiscent of a statement made by former militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and his likes in their desperate bid to foist President Jonathan on the country as if the citizens of the country do not have a choice in how they are governed.
They have kept ranting without deeply thinking about the consequences of their utterances on the existence of the country at a time when others are battling to keep the country together.
Their statements are similar to the ones that were made by some aggrieved northern politicians prior to Jonathan’s emergence as President in 2011. The result of those statements is the terrible security challenges that have engulfed the country.
We do not know through what assessment Ezeife and his ilk came about their analysis and stand, but we are totally against any move by Nigerians with inordinate ambition to endanger the lives of the citizens in a bid to actualise their desires. We therefore call for caution from the country’s leaders. They should begin to see themselves as unifying factors rather than agents of disintegration.